Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Policy Experts Wary Over What Is In The Fine Print Of $50B Rural Fund
Politico: ‘Sort Of Blackmail’: Billions In Rural Health Funding Hinge On States Passing Trump-Backed Policies
The Trump administration offered states a deal: pledge to enact White House-favored policies for a chance to win a bigger share of the $50 billion aimed at transforming the nation’s struggling rural health care systems. The battle for those funds is now underway. (Ollstein, Reader and Crampton, 12/7)
The Washington Post: Rural America Relies On Foreign Doctors. Trump’s Visa Fee Shuts Them Out.
The overworked kidney doctors in this small town were supposed to get reinforcement this fall with the arrival of a new colleague from India. Patients already had appointments scheduled with the incoming nephrologist. Then the Trump administration demanded that companies pay a $100,000 visa fee to bring highly skilled workers from abroad, including doctors and medical professionals urgently needed in health care deserts. Nephrology Associates of the Carolinas could no longer afford to sponsor the Indian kidney specialist, and it has not found an American well suited for the job. (Ovalle, 12/8)
More health industry developments —
Modern Healthcare: Prime Healthcare Foundation, Prospect Medical Possible Deal Off
Prime Healthcare Foundation has declined to buy two Prospect Medical Holdings hospitals in Rhode Island. Ontario, California-headquartered Prime Healthcare operates 51 hospitals in 14 states. Of those, 18 are owned by the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization, according to its website. Prime Healthcare Foundation would have owned the two Prospect hospitals. (DeSilva, 12/5)
Bloomberg: Goldman, Morgan Stanley Sweeten Healthcare Firm’s Debt Deal
A group of banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley improved terms of a debt offering for Sevita Whole Health LLC after an initial struggle to sell a loan for the healthcare services firm, according to people familiar with the matter. (Gurumurthy, Farr and Amodeo, 12/5)
Montana Free Press: In Laurel, Few Details Released About Potential Site Of Proposed State-Run Mental Health Facility
Montana state Sen. Vince Ricci, a Republican whose district stretches from west Billings to the nearby town of Laurel, has spent months trying to keep track of the state’s evolving plans to develop a new psychiatric facility somewhere in his neck of the woods. For a lawmaker used to being well-informed on state policy, it hasn’t been easy. The day after Thanksgiving, the administration of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte officially announced it had picked the Laurel area as the site for the 32-bed facility intended to treat mentally ill people in the criminal legal system. (Silvers, 12/5)
KFF Health News: A North Carolina Hospital Was Slated To Open In 2025. Mired In Bureaucracy, It’s Still A Dirt Field
Madison County, tucked in the mountains of western North Carolina, has no hospital and just three ambulances serving its roughly 22,000 people. The ambulances frequently travel back and forth to Mission Hospital in Asheville, the largest and most central hospital in the region. Trips can take more than two hours, according to Mark Snelson, director of Madison Medics EMS, the local emergency medical service. “When we get busy and all three of them are gone, we have no ambulances in our county,” he said. (Jones, 12/8)
ProPublica: Sick In A Hospital Town
The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital — the dominant political and economic institution of Albany, Georgia — is the story of American health care. (Thompson and Burke, 12/7)
On artificial intelligence —
Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Prefer AI For Clinical, Admin Use: J.P. Morgan Chase
Health systems aren’t just excited about using artificial intelligence as a tool to improve back-office operations. They’re also keen to use it for clinical diagnosis. A report published this week by J.P. Morgan Chase examined major health tech trends including venture capital investment into AI. It also looked at how health systems plan to deploy the technology and who is using digital health technology most frequently. (Perna and Broderick, 12/5)
Stat: Is AI Ready To Interpret Chest X-Rays Without Human Supervision?
In front of a room of radiologists, Warren Gefter pulled up a chest X-ray on a large screen. It looked like a standard, uncomplicated read. Heart: normal. Lungs: clear. But Gefter, a professor of radiology at Penn Medicine, wasn’t looking to his peers to interpret the scan. Instead, he highlighted what a generative artificial intelligence model had put in its written findings, along with those normal results: “Left hip prosthesis in situ.” (Palmer, 12/8)
